Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-06-18


deed, are felt already in the need of proper
guides to taste and style and right-thinking.
As the poet Crabbe wrote and published 102
years ago, in his poem called THE News
paper" our country has no literary mastic
but the daily press is it's Bible. Newspapers,
in the words of Crabbe-
Like baneful herbs the gazers eye they seize,
Rush to the head and poison where they please.
Like idle flies, busy, buzzing train,
They drop their maggots in the trifler's brain /;
To them all readers turn, and they can look
Pleased on paper who abhor book.
] know of no illustration which can bring
out my meaning better that George Crabbe's
own life.
He was described by Byron as Natures
sternest painter, yet the BEST" and though
he was a clergyman of the Established
Church, these words of Byron stand on his
tombstone.
Born in fishing village, slightly educated
to be the village doctor and surgeon, he found
he had one talent which destroyed all the rest
in the way of making money-the power to
compose Laboring with this talent, engaged
to be married, in somewhat poor health, he
finally resolved to go to London and see if he
could not get encouragement for his pen. 1t
was at this time that he wrote the poem
called 1.-THE Newspaper refusing to be
drawn into that vortex which often devours
the talents. With hardly enough to keep
soul and body together, he spent whole
year perfecting his versification and his
knowledge of the English language. He
could do nothing with the booksellers
because he had no reputation. He wrote to
several public men, for in that day it was the
statesman's habit to recognize literary genius
Chatterton had Just killed himself after fail
ing in the city, but he had not been honest
while Crabbe, though poor mans son, was
gentleman.
His last despairing letter to Edmund Burke
changed all the conditions of his life. Burke
took him to his house, made him resident
there introduced him to his society, had his
poems published by subscription and then
he was made a clergyman of the Church of
England which included the office of magis-
trate. Starting from the time OF DIR. John
son, who corrected one of his poems for the
press, this man lived down to the year 1892
having been in the Established Church fifty
years. He left behind him sons to be as
good clergymen and magistrates as himself.
His entire work was the depletion of Eng
lish character among the average and the
poorer classes, and it has never been done as
well by anybody else. He did not write
hectoring poetry, drawing moral at the end
of every stanza; he simply set out the plain
est facts with the most subtle analysis and
in the most delightful English. The United
States has never had IN its literature primer
to compare with Crabbes great study of his
nation and his times.
There was one period when he produced
nothing for twenty-three years; and all this
time his tithes sustained himself and
family, and he was all the while perfecting
his mind, so as to get that machine in the
most wholesome order for the resumption
of his work. Had he lived in the United
States nearly every newspaper in the land
would have had a paragraph about once a
week saying that Crabbe had played out,
that Crabbe was HAS Been" etc. The
persons who kept this poor mans sun up
and along were the statesmen and mobiles of
England. No wonder that Mr.. Lowell
says that the influence of the nobility con-
tinues to be wholesome in that country.
Who can say that the influence of the
American politician is wholesome in any
thing2
In the early portion of our history, there
was some recognition for literature; Gen
eral Washington took the only poets he
knew, Humphreys and Trumbull, and gave
them appointments. Irving and Hawthorne
were taken into the public service by Presi-
dents Van Buren, and Pierce. Mr.. Lincoln
gave foreign appointment to Mr.. Howells,
who is the most persevering of our novel
writers and to Mr.. Neill. who has made the
most original historical discoveries of our
time. But in the American government
there was no literary force at all, and nearly
all the newspaper forces hold the govern
ment in check If literary man gets po-
litical consideration the press is very. apt to
resent it. We are consequently growing up
to be just what the people claim against US
a race of nothing distinguished but our rich
men and of nothing influential besides them
but the politicians and the newspapers.
On the other hand the magnificent edifice
of British literature never could have been
reared upon the popular favor. The moment
Sir Walter Scott was heard Of William Pitt
asked, "Is this man taken care OFF" He was
taken care of by two offices, which paid him
$1,000 and consumed hardly any of his time,
and by being made baronet. The public
men of England were the first to discover
and recognize him, and their approval pre-
sented him to the people.
Dean Swift, one of the most original men
of any literature, was provided, like Crabbe,
with the great Church of st. Patrick in Dub
lin, though he had no disposition for the
ministry, and in that place he produced his
extraordinary works.
Tom Moore was poor Irishman, a grocer's
son; seeing how well he could write, the gov
eminent gave him an office, which allowed
him to follow literature all his days.
Fielding, who was the precursor of Dickens
and the founder of the British novel, was a
magistrate the most of his life, drawing the
public salary.
Anthony Trollope was connected with the
British postotfice in such way as not to de-
your all his time from his youth to his old
age. The American danes and misses who
read his novels when there were few others
to read like them owed the enjoyment of
that man to the fact that there was govern
ment which took pride in its literature.
1 was thinking but yesterday of three men
whogr up in the same country, and of how
different were their fates.
Scott, Burns and Calender were all Scotch.